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After booting up your HP or Compaq Desktop computer using Windows Vista, be sure to create recovery discs for Windows Vista in HP Recovery Manager. The recovery discs will boot the computer and reset both the operating system and software to factory settings in case of system instability or failure. Be aware that different manufacturers may have different instructions; these are specifically for HP or Compaq Desktop PCs running Vista.

Steps

1

Disable Windows User Account Control.

Click Start and type "account" in the search field.

Click the blue hypertext that says "Turn User Account Control On or Off" at the bottom of the box that pops up.

Remove the check mark from the box in front of "Use User Account Control (UAC) to help protect your computer."

Click OK.

2

Disable any drive encryption software that may be running such as bitlocker.

3

Click Start>All Programs>PC Help & Tools>Recovery Disc Creation."

4

Click "Next" on the Recovery Manager Welcome screen.

5

Prepare your discs. The next screen will tell you exactly how many blank discs that you will need of each type for burning your recovery discs. Number each disc with a permanent marker so that can easily keep them in order.

6

Insert the first disc into your tray. When you close the tray, the "Next" button will light. #*Click the "Next" button to proceed.

If an AutoPlay window pops up, close it by clicking the "X" in the top right corner of the window.

7

Click "Next" in the disc verification window.

8

Wait while the discs are created. You will see a Recovery Manager process window that will tell you exactly how the program is progressing.

The program will go through 3 stages including Collecting files, Writing files onto disc, and Verifying CD or DVD contents. This may take 20 to 40 minutes.

Clicking "Cancel" during this process could result in a corrupted and unusable disc.

9

Remove the first disc when you see the screen that says "Disc 1 of 2 successfully created."

10

Insert the next disc after the first has been finished and click Next."

Continue burning discs and follow the on-screen instructions until you've created your last disc.

You are finished when you see a screen that says "System Recovery Discs Creation complete."

11

Click Next after removing the disc and then Finish to complete the session. Store the discs and use them to recover your computer in case of system instability or failure.

Community Q&A

Tips

Make copies of your recovery discs. Keep a set at home with your PC and take a second set with you while you're traveling. This tip is particularly important for international students or other students who are studying far from home.

Search online if you have a notebook computer or another brand of desktop computer to find out the process for making recovery discs. Making discs takes time, but losing your OS would be much more disastrous.

Permission may have be sought from the computer administrator (unless you are one) in order to start creating recovery discs.

You can usually create recovery discs on CD-RW with a CD burner, but you will have to use a large quantity of discs compared to using only a couple of DVD+R discs.

Warnings

Mini discs are not compatible with the HP Recovery Disc Creator.

Only one set of recovery discs can be made per computer, so do not lose them. Handle the discs carefully and keep them in a safe place.

Make sure you know which version of Windows Vista is saved on your recovery discs. If Service Packs have been added since you purchased your computer, you will need to download the service packs from Microsoft in addition to using your recovery discs.

Article Info

wikiHow is a “wiki,” similar to Wikipedia, which means that many of our articles are co-written by multiple authors. To create this article, 25 people, some anonymous, worked to edit and improve it over time. This article has also been viewed 441,585 times.